Rehearsal Rooms
by SuperSandri
Summary: A story of broadway, musical theory, singing lessons, awkward friends, and learning that when there's a chance you've been given, you should be driven as hell. Musical theatre major Mina Carolina meets Marco Bodt, a boy studying musical theory who may or may not have taken her time in a rehearsal room. Prompt for MarcoMina week. I don't own the musicals mentioned. T for swearing.
1. Chapter 1

_**Broadway for MarcoMina week**_

_**Title: Rehearsal Rooms, part 1**_

_A/n: THIS TOOK SO FUCKING LONG BUT I AM SO FUCKING PROUD OF IT. I'VE BEEN EDITING FOR HOURS AND HERE IT IS. _

_BROADWAY_

_FOR MARCOMINA WEEK. _

_20 THOUSAND WORDS. _

_SPLIT INTO 3 PARTS FOR CONVENIENCE. _

_WITH THEATRE JOKES AND BROADWAY REFERENCES. _

_I hope you enjoy, leave a review if you would like because I would really like to know what you think. _

* * *

Mina Carolina always thought that RAPA was the weirdest acronym for her current school. But the Rose Academy for Performing Arts still held up to it's reputation as one of the best fine arts education institutes in Rose, it's only competition being the St. Sina Music Conservatory. The january sky put a chill over the urban Trost streets as the pigtailed girl put some hustle in her step to get to her destination. Backpack rustling and constantly hitting against her body as she moved, most likely due to the sheet music she ended up stuffing into the leather confines.

She walked up the academy's steps and into the moderately busy halls, passing over the various other performers and musicians most likely doing the same thing she was intending to do on this very day, squeeze some extra rehearsal time into their daily lives.

On a weekend, one would expect that a girl Mina's age would be going out on the town, hanging with friends, or just generally doing what all the cool kids were doing these days. But a good skill Mina always possessed had been prioritizing, and in the moment, her priorities were focused on passionately practicing Newsies's catchy but difficult Watch What Happens until it was practically impossible for her to fail.

Mina's leather boots tapped against the wooden floor as she made her way directly towards rehearsal room 16. When one booked this specific room for this specific time several weeks in advance, one could not help but feel rather exciting upon climbing up the stairs in anticipation for belting it out inside the academy's largest rehearsal room.

A mandatory element of the utilization of the rooms however, was finding the small clipboard of names in that floor's hall in order to sign oneself in. Mina located the clipboard right by the staircase and reached for the pen tied to the wall with a length of aged twine. She located her time slot for her room and was prepared to sign her name in, but the second her hand hovered above rehearsal room 16's 11:45-1:15 time slot, she noticed that a name had already been written on.

_M. P. Bodt._

Eyebrow scrunched in puzzlement, confusion took over Mina's mindset as she squinted her eyes at the paper, "Wait what?"

This was a mistake, it simply had to be. Mina had booked that room for herself weeks before today, how on earth could someone already be in it?

To answer her question, she looked down the hall and spoke to the first people she could recognize, "Hey, Mylius, Nac, is there anyone in room 16?"

The quieter of the young couple nodded his head while Nac was more straight forward with his reply, "Yeah, we actually ran into the guy a while back."

Mina appeared to be shocked, "What? No, that can't be! I booked that room last flippin' month, how did someone get in there?"

Mylius shook his head once more, "I'm not sure, Mina, but you can go talk to the guy. He seemed nice."

Nac chuckled somewhat loudly, "Yeah, he had a song book in his hands. Probably one of those music theory students, y'know, a prep and all that jazz."

A subtle groan escaped Mina's lips as she started stepping down the hallway, muttering something about how while nice people were nice, they were never entitled to rehearsal rooms one spent weeks in advance trying to book. The pigtailed girl bid Nac and Mylius farewell as she made her way towards room 16.

Room 16 was fairly large, as the reputation held. It was mainly windowless as well, with the major exception being a glass pane on the door that allowed one to see if the room was occupied or not. From her position down the hall, Mina could see the room's tenant inside sitting quaintly at the baby grand piano, papers askew everywhere in the room as he played notes and tried to write them down.

As Mina approached him, she started noticing the expression of concentration on his freckled face, an expression of passion that only performers showed when they were trying their absolute hardest. Mina was not a stranger to the feeling, as it was apparent in her several auditions to even get into this school. And she would even try sympathizing with this passionate player if he hadn't swiped away her rehearsal time from under her nose.

Therefore, she had no restraint in tapping on the room's door the second her little dancer's ass got right in front of it.

"Hey, HEY!"

A logical person knew that the room was soundproof, but anyone would be able to hear the loud tapping noise Mina's knuckles made on the glass.

The freckled boy turned his head at the door's window pane. Standing up from the bench, he prodded over to the door and opened it. "Yeah?"

Mina was very snappy and irked in her tone when speaking, which was no doubt a tone shift from the usual kind and gentle nature she took upon on a daily basis, "You took my rehearsal time!"

Freckles seemed to be playing dumb, "Excuse me?"

Grumbling, Mina pointed her hand back down the hallway, "There's this clipboard at the end of the hall with the names of the people who want to use these damn rooms and I had this place booked for the 11:45 slot! You took my spot, idiot!" The extended hand soon returned to the girl's side, fingers clenched into a fist to release moderate amounts of annoyance plaguing Mina's system. At least the yelling helped release it, even though her singer's lungs projected the noise throughout the entire hall.

Fingers rubbing the tip of his nose, freckles sucked in a somewhat nervous breath. At least her aggression managed to frighten him. Where was this feistiness during her last dramatic monologue? Anyway, she could see a small tremble of fear in his face."Oh, w-well, I'm sorry about that, b-b-but Dot Pixis owed me a favour after I gave him one of my cronuts, and I've always wanted to compose with a baby grand piano. Plus, my epiano at home needs a new pedal so..."

"So you steal the rehearsal time from someone who spent weeks booking it?" Mina accused, pointing a finger at him like an overly stern mother.

Considering his next words, freckles could have had a nickname change and start being referred to Captain Obvious, "Listen, I-I can tell that you're mad at me, but this was the only time Pixis could give me, and I took it."

"Yeah, I noticed, Captain Obvious," Mina scoffed, arms suddenly crossing. Her chest moved up and down with her breathing, rage slowly phasing out of her system as she tried to calm herself down. She was never used to being this pissed or mad, it was simply not in her nature. Luckily, she had learned to push her anger out of her system with the simple task of breathing deeply.

Calm and composed like the score to Once, Mina's tone was now less loud and aggressive, coming out more like someone trying to be a mature adult in this situation. "All right, you already have the room, so I should really stop bothering you." She managed to look him in the eyes this time, "You're a composer, aren't you?"

Freckles nodded and put on a modest smile, "Yep." He reached out a hand to her, "Marco Bodt, WIP songwriter and EP creator."

Mina found herself shaking his hand, "Mina Carolina, no official title, but broadway hopeful might work."

Marco nodded, raising an intrigued eyebrow at the announcement of her unofficial title, "Ahh, theatre major?"

"Musical theatre actually," she corrected, disconnecting her hand from his. "I was going to use this room to practice for my next critique, but I believe we already clarified that I now cannot."

His expression softened sympathetically, "Y'know, think I can snag you some time to rehearse if I can get talking to Pixis again. Just hand that dude the food you're eating and he'll grant you anything."

Mina shook her head, putting her hand up to halt him, "No thanks, I can just book a smaller room 2 weeks from now. It'll be okay, Bodt."

"Marco. Just call me Marco," he insisted, reaching into his pocket to pull out his wallet. Rummaging inside, he pulled out a small off-white square of paper, "This is my number, call me at 8 tonight and I can guarantee you a good time slot in any rehearsal space you want."

Mina took the card gingerly, reading over the black boxy text to take in the information.

_**Marco P. Bodt:** Musician/Producer/Freckled Jesus_

"Freckled Jesus?" Mina raised an eyebrow at the card, proceeding to looking up at him in question.

"My friends want it to be my stage name," Marco explained, scratching the back of his neck somewhat nervously. "We're trying to get a band started, but I'm sure we're gonna need songs first before we start choosing names."

Mina understood, tucking the card in her shirt pocket, "That why you're in here?"

He nodded in confirmation, "Precisely."

"Hm, well, good luck on your project then," Mina acknowledged, adjusting the strap on her shoulder bag in preparation to leave again. "I guess I'll be going then."

"See ya," Marco bid farewell, bowing a little too formally as he did so that seemed a bit satirical in all honesty. "And don't worry, I can get you some good workspace. How do you feel about Theatre 104?"

That particular theatre happened to be a quaint blackbox theatre painted pitch black with the 112 seats all raised up to look down at the sufficient bit of stage. Mina had been in it once to see Hitch and Marlowe last year in the scottish play, sitting a top one of the highest seats. It was tiny compared to theatre 850, but Mina found it rather cozy and enjoyed the fact that it made some performances seem more small, close, and intimate.

Still, however, she could only raise an eyebrow at Marco's bold statement, "A whole theatre for one person? You're really that confident?"

"Are you?" Marco retaliated easily.

Of course, Mina was confident. Heck, confidence could've been her middle name if it weren't for that whole actual legal name thing going on. Getting back on subject, Mina's nod in reply was doused in self-assurance. "Musical theatre majors usually need confidence to work."

"Then don't worry about it," Marco assured, patting her shoulder in a friendly nature that only seemed natural for him. "I get you Theatre 104 by next weekend and this entire feud will be settled, deal?"

Affirmatively, Mina found herself agreeing, "All right, deal."

"And by the way, I apologize for taking your time here. I didn't know."

"It's fine," Mina muttered with a monotoned voice that could pass for stoicism and annoyance.

Marco was getting the sense that his apology was not enough for her, "I really am sorry."

"You said that already," she affirmed, finding it odd that he was repeating himself. Maybe she intimidated him a bit too much with her initial displeasure at their dilemma. Mina did occasionally try to intimidate her peers, but that always with her degree of skill, never her mannerisms. Due to this, she was prompted to be a little bit of a bigger person in the situation. "But listen, I know I kind of came off as a bit of a hussy, but don't worry, I'm not gonna hurt you or anything."

"Oh, that's assuring." Judging from how tall Marco was compared to her, he got the impression that fighting this girl would be like fighting a hamster. An admittedly rather cute hamster, who happened to have a really loud voice.

"And hey, if you're seriously up for getting me that theatre, then I guess we could be friends in the future," Mina threw out there. The ability to make enemies was not something she would want in her resume.

The prospect of friendship seemed quite pleasant to Marco, "I'd like that."

"Good, good," Mina agreed, nodding her head. Suddenly, embarrassment surged through her veins as she finally took notice to exactly what she was doing. "And right, friends don't rudely intrude on other friend's rehearsal times. My bad." And with everything said, Mina waved Marco goodbye and closed the rehearsal room door before she could come off as a bigger dork than she already did.

* * *

Prodding down the hallway, Marco was dead set on returning back to the apartment he shared with a certain skinhead percussionist and ex-hunter turned guitarist. Considering how his composing session went, all Marco truly desired in this moment was to maybe grab a bite to eat, subway home, and lie in his bed until the sound of D major chord finally stopped ringing in his ears. It didn't take a genius to know that Marco was going nowhere in his quest to write enough songs for a decent EP.

Perhaps it was his struggle to compose vocal harmonies, or the fact that his vocals needed some brushing up on their own, or the quality of his lyrics. Either way, Marco felt like he was running into a solid brick wall, and he feared the laughter he would face from his friends considering how much hope and boasting he showed after announcing his quest. All that confidence shot out and wasted, like the money he was investing into this school to get his musical theory degree.

Speaking of wasted, that was what he currently felt like getting tonight. Perhaps Connie could call Sasha up and they could go to that place a few blocks away from the apartment.

However, fate decided to deter those non-productive plans when a slew of papers escaped from his messenger bag. Turning his head back, he saw his sheet music falling slowly in the air before scattering on the floor. Sighing, Marco knelt down on his knees and reached for the papers, dragging them back into a messy pile before trying to straighten the collection of mediocre compositions.

Grumbling, Marco accepted the fact that he was going to need to re-organize these and invest in some staples at one point as he stood up and kept walking down the hall. His usual routine involved cutting through the part of RAPA's campus that housed the theatres as a convenient shortcut, and a new addition to this routine today would be him fumbling with his papers as if he were a middle aged college professor.

Marco trudged along in his quest, pushing the door to the theatre district open with his foot as his hands grasped onto the sheets in his hands. He got the hang of it easily and managed to get everything into place. Once he was sure that everything was organized enough, Marco began stuffing the sheet music back into the leather confines of his bag as he passed one theatre's open door.

But as he did, Marco's sensitive ears picked up a certain voice coming from the room. Perking up, it took some time for Marco to recognize the female tone since it did not seem to be mad at him at all.

_Am I insane? This is what I've been waiting for._

_Well that, plus the screaming of ten angry editors._

_A girl? It's a girl! How the hell? Is that even legal? Look, just go and get her!_

Marco's eyes looked to the side of the theatre's open door to read the number before reaching into his pocket to check the time. Information confirmed, he proceeded to slowly walk in, letting the singer's voice intensify with every step. The sound filled the theatre perfectly, coating each and every inch of the room with the pleasant alto.

Two options were at Marco's disposal, he could either walk down the theatre steps among the empty seats or remain safely in the doorway, where he could manage to see the performer on the stage quite easily.

_Not only that, there's a story behind the story: T__housands of children, exploited, invisible._

_Speak up, take a stand, and there's someone to write about it. __That's how things get better._

Smiling, Marco just had to give himself props for knowing that it was definitely Mina practicing here. Who else would be using this room at specifically this time on this day?

And to her credit, she was using it well, as confidence that simply flowed from her presence mixed together well with the song at hand. Her vocals were just the right mix of preppy and perky for the main verses, and they transitioned well into a smooth head voice for the main chorus.

_Give life's little guys some ink, and when it dries just watch what happens. __Those kids will live and breathe right on the page __and once they're centre stage, you watch what happens._

_And who's there with her camera and her pen __as boys turn into men, __they'll storm the gates and then just watch what happens when they do!_

What followed next was a very high pitched and excited screech, energy stemming from both Mina's energy and the positive aura of the song. Her perkiness was undeniably adorable, in Marco's eyes at least. Also in his eyes, or in this case, ears, the original high-pitched chirp completely caught him off guard. On reflex, Marco threw his hands up onto his ears as her high but simultaneously sweet tone filled up the theatre.

Mina retained her perkiness, even after the squeal was over. However, the a few seconds passed before her expression hardened into a look backed up with thought before she moved her hand up to place it on her throat, feeling for something worth feeling for.

Was something up?

Her mind seemed to be thinking about what ever was up as she quickly prodded over to the lone stereo on the corner of the stage before kneeling down the pressing the 'off' button. Mina took a seat beside the system, one hand reaching over to the part of the floor where she had placed all of her stuff to grab her water bottle. She only then noticed Marco when she took a well-deserved gulp of water from the container, thus looking up and seeing him learning in the theatre's doorway.

The second her eyes gazed upon him, Mina almost choked on her water. But after coughing and getting the liquid through her throat, she finally managed to speak, "Hey, freckles, I thought friends don't barge in on other friend's rehearsal times. Are we gonna have to get used to running into each other like this?"

A small wave of panic did flow through Marco's system the second she looked at him. But it flowed quickly enough for him to get over the first-hand embarrassment and reply like a normal person. "N-no! I swear, I wasn't!" His expression showed his nervousness as he rubbed the tip of his nose with his finger, "I-I uh... just heard you outside, and I just wanted to see what was making such a good sound. You know, you sound really nice when you're not yelling at me." Marco felt like it was best to start walking down towards the stage, arriving at the stairs, and eventually stepping down with each sound of contact from his feet to the stairs ringing through the theatre with a distinctive 'tap!' noise.

Mina raised an eyebrow with a confidence-ridden semi-smirk on her lips, "Really? So you didn't come in here to watch a sweaty girl in a tank top and tights singing her head off?"

"For the record, no," Marco justified, nerves just a little bit more calm which allowed him to speak normally. "But if you ask me, I think you'd probably sweat less if it wasn't so hot in here."

Mina shook her head, putting her water bottle down as she grazed the back of her hand against her forehead for a brief moment. "My dance teacher told me that performing in cold areas will make you pull a muscle more easily, and I can't afford that right now. Plus, my teacher kind of scared the entire class into not disobeying him, so yeah, he basically refers to us as his bitches now." She reached down to her stuff once more, where her unzipped duffle bag resided. Reaching in, she pulled out a rather comfy looking hoodie and pulled it over her head to be encased in the warmth. In her life, the Carolina had a rather high tolerance for heat, and she even learned to ignore the raised eyebrows she got when she walked into the summer heat with her favourite sweater on.

"Makes sense. My buddy Jean's on a scholarship to the Stohess Dance Academy and he says his teachers are from anything deeper than hell." Marco agreed, going back to her first question. "But who's your dance teach? Dietrich? Rheinberger?"

For the second time, she shook her head, "Shadis. He's an instructor from the deepest parts of hell, my buddy Thomas was a TA for him a while back and now he has mental scars." Mina then got on her two feet, leaning down towards her discarded stuff on the floor to retrieve her phone. After checking the time, she made a brief face and started gathering her stuff. "Hey, you heading out now?"

Marco shrugged his shoulders, aware that his plans for the evening were not officially written in stone, "Meh, I got some time to spare."

"Good," Mina replied as she stood up straight, taking the stereo in her grip and shoving it right into his arms. "Mind putting this back stage for me?"

He did stumble under the weight, but seeing as his new female accomplice appeared to be tired from practicing, Marco made the choice to be the bigger person in more ways than their height difference, "Augh! Uh... okay." At least the stereo wasn't as heavy as one could expect.

Mina gave him a thankful smile, "You're a real saint, freckles."

Shuffling towards the back of the area, Marco had the need to refresh her memory, "My name's Marco, remember? Marco Bodt? There was a reason the initials M. P. Bodt were on the practice room sheet."

The zipping noise made when she shut her backpack shut was rather loud in the theatre, "Of course, you gave me your card." Slinging the bag over her shoulder, she watched Marco get backstage and place the stereo in a safe spot, "By the way, what's this whole Freckled Jesus thing going on? Is that your street name? Childhood moniker? Or just a very weird stage name?"

Turning around from his finished task, Marco smirked as if he had answered this question a thousand times before and was way too used to clarifying, "It's my attempt to make a stage name." Stepping out from the backstage area, he confirmed a few things, "Me and a few buddies of mine are trying to start a band, and they said that if I could become the official song writer, we could name it Freckled Jesus and the Springles!"

Mina raised a curious eyebrow, "What's a springle?"

"It's a long story," Marco sighed, not wanting to bore her with the details of Connie and Sasha's relationship. "But name aside, all I got to do is write 5 songs, we put together an EP, and our band's up and running."

"An EP?" Mina asked, intrigued by this small but potentially proud project. "You write original stuff?"

"Write, yes. Compose, somehow," Marco answered. The piano had been his forte ever since his parents brought him to his first lesson at the age of 6. But after years of playing concertos and waltzes, Marco's brain was not shaped into the best composing mindset. "I can write down instrumental melodies fine, but it's vocals I have trouble on."

Mina perked up at the word vocals, seeing as it was one of her fortes. Show choir and musical theatre all through high school trained her soprano and toned her diaphragm into perfect belting condition, and it was no doubt the one true thing that managed her a spot in the school. "Didn't know you were the singing type." As she spoke, she began making her way out of the theatre. Luckily, the place would be used again in the hands of other students, therefore, she wasn't given the daunting task of locking up the place for the night.

Marco grinned modestly at her assumption as he followed the pigtailed girl up the stairs among the seats, "Kind of, just a little bit. I'm probably nothing compared to you, really. But I do karaoke really well."

"Hmm... you a tenor or a baritone?" Mina scratched her chin, recalling the sound of his voice. He had never raised it high enough in her small history with him, but Mina did always have a good sense of how high someone's vocal range could potentially be if she were to speak with them long enough. "You could be both..."

Marco himself never put too much thought into the quality of his voice. Besides, Sasha was going to be the lead singer in Freckled Jesus and The Springles, he would simply sing back up for the songs he wrote on the comfy piano bench. "Never thought about it much, really."

"Well, if you ever need help with anything singing related, I'd be happy to be of assistance," Mina offered, though, she wasn't too entirely serious, considering that at a school for the performing arts, there would be much better vocal teachers than her. Besides, the only experience she had with teacher was helping Mylius hone his angelic tenor to earn top marks on their own version of Les Miserables's A Heart Full Of Love during freshman year.

But unlike Mina, Marco interoperated her little offer made jokingly as if she was in fact being serious. "Really!? You'd do that?"

The first words that went through her mind were _Holy shit, I was just making some conversation._ Thankfully, the first words that went through her mouth were, "Uh... yeah, yeah!" Mina cleared her throat, trying her best to regain her confident image she projected to many that she did not like to break, "I think I can at least." All she could really offer was a few vocal runs that would get his voice into somewhat good singing shape, nothing like what Mr. Smith pushed her with.

As they approached the door, Marco's smile grew wider, "Dude, that'd be amazing! I mean, I don't think I can pay you a lot, and I'm sure I'll shatter glass with my voice, but I'm sure it'll do wonders for my band."

She shrugged him off at the prospect of payment for her potential services, "Oh, don't worry about that, I can work free of charge." Suddenly, her expression turned sheepish as they entered the halls of the academy, "But um... y'know, a girl's still gotta eat though..." Perhaps it was the emptiness in her stomach talking, or the fact that Ymir had snagged the last granola bar in her bag during their last stage-fighting class.

At least Marco didn't laugh too loudly and appeared to assume a rather minimum level of all the dork in Mina's being, "Heh, I see. That I can do."

Nodding, the little joking offer Mina made soon formed into a full-fledged plan right before her eyes, "All righty then. Is there a specific place you wanna meet? I got a keyboard back at my apartment, or we could just book some more rehearsal rooms later on." She would truly be okay with both, even though she wasn't too sure how Annie and Hitch would react to not one, but two voices practicing vocal riffs in the tiny confines.

"I can book a rehearsal room next week," Marco offered, thinking back to how easy Mr. Pixis could be manipulated into granting students anything. "Maybe not the big one, but they're all soundproof. It'll be fine."

"That's great," Mina accepted as their little pace through the hallway ended and the two were faced with the building's entrance door. With the kick of her shoe, Mina pushed the door open and stepped out somewhat joyfully. However, a small pang of nervous tension did sear through her system regarding what words she would say next, "Erm, uh... do you have my phone number?"

On response, Marco reached into his coat pocket and pulled out his device. Fingers touching the screen, briefly, he soon shook his head before handing it to her, "Don't think so. Mind adding it?"

Mina took the phone in her hands with a nod, "Of course. Hold on." Briefly, she moved her fingers tips over the screen and placed her number into the device. "I think I still have your card. Or you could just call me."

"Definitely," Marco acknowledged as he took his phone back before checking the times. He made a wincing noise at the revelation of the true hour as he slipped his phone back into his pocket, "Listen, I gotta jet right now. I can book a room soon, so I'll hit you up in a few days and we'll see what works, deal?"

Nodding, Mina gave him a thumbs up, "Do what you have to, Freckles. I'm free most monday and friday afternoons, FYI."

"All right, cool, cool," Marco agreed, trying his best to remember this information for later. "Anyway, I got a subway to catch. See you later, Mina."

"Arrivederci, Freckles," Mina bid adieu to her new friend, and possible employer as he waved her off and dashed to the in-ground staircase leading to the underground subway placed on the street corner.

"See ya, Mina," Marco said as he ran off, his name rolling off his tongue oddly. But while odd, it did feel interesting to say her name. A good interesting. Smiling to himself, he was just about to duck into the subway, but before he could, he turned on his heel right in front of the stairs to look back at her. "And by the way, it's Marco! Not freckles!"

"Right, right." Rolling her eyes, Mina had a sense that she was probably going to keep calling him that. Besides, he was no Annie, and she was sure that this seemingly harmless guy wouldn't hurt her if she referred to him as Big Beak, whether it be accidental or not.

* * *

Hitch's catty laughter rang through the cafe as the two females found their way into a comfortable table for two, "Dang, Carolina, I didn't know you'd stoop low enough to hang with a nerdy theory student."

The corner of Mina's mouth perked into a smirk as she wagged a finger at her friend, "Hey, don't listen to every rumour you hear in the hallways. Music theory students are actually more than just nerds, and they can get you good rehearsal space if you make them feel guilty enough." Setting her coat down on a chair, Mina soon plopped herself down comfortably, "But then again, you're the one who believed that drinking coconut water and hot sauce would help you lose the freshman 15..."

Hitch looked offended, "Don't make me put a slug between your shoulder blades! And for the record, that was backed up by science, and it was simply my allergies that made it not work on me." It was a very terrifying way for shakespeare major to discover that she was allergic to coconut when it was mixed with a condiment hotter than hell. "And hey, isn't the main topic here the fact that you're practically gonna go on dates with this guy?"

Mina raised an eyebrow, "Wait, what do you mean by dates? I just offered to help him with basic vocal training one-on-one. If that would be considered a date, then I probably went on plenty with my high school choir teacher." It was only seconds later that the Carolina realized how odd that sentence sounded.

"Pffft!" Hitch puffed, grasping her mug full of some sort of espresso drink with one hand and pointing a mocking finger at her friend with the other. The catty girl could have earned a degree in assuming too much and making everything awkward. "Come on, Carolina. You are aware that those smaller rehearsal rooms are windowless and soundproof, right? And they are smaller, y'know." She hid her smirk by simply taking a long pull of her drink.

The mere idea of what Hitch was implying was enough to make Mina blush redder than the blood of angry men, "... Hitch, why do you have to ruin everything?"

"I'm just sayin', Carolina, we all know the cliche here. You tend to bond with people you spend hours performing with simply because you get trapped into small spaces with them for hours at a time. It's not a law or anything, but that's just the way it is. And when you're trapped in a rehearsal room with someone you just met, it's kind of like a date. You get to know them, they get to know you, and it can either be fun or agonizingly painful," Hitch explained honestly, leaning back in her chair to relax. "I wouldn't be surprised if something happened between you and this guy. It's not like he's way older than you, and I doubt that male theory students are like male musical theatre students when it comes to what team they play for, if you know what I mean." The suggestive eyebrow waggling she did seemed so unnecessary.

Mina rolled her eyes and facepalmed herself, "Hitch, not every guy majoring in musical theatre is gay."

"Right, right," Hitch appeared to agree. "Just Mylius, Nac, and isn't Thomas 85%-15% favouring his preference to dudes?"

"That doesn't matter, Hitch! Besides, I can't afford to fall for someone right now," Mina clarified, trying to make herself clear as she leaned over the table. "I mean, it'd be sweet and all, but I got my critiques and classes to worry about, and I'm still trying to find an agent to help me find auditions and gigs. And I swear that my broadway debut is getting closer and closer. I just need it to get into grabbing distance and I'll accept it with open arms."

Hitch rolled her eyes, laughing into the lip of her mug, "All right, all right, say what you will. But I'm just saying, Carolina, everyone bonds during the rehearsal process. Especially you." A pause suddenly followed after Hitch's last words. Hesitating, the short-haired girl took the time to change her tone, lowering her voice, "We just don't want you to get hurt again, okay? After that whole Mylius thing that happened freshmen year, me and Annie kind of understood when you hesitated to sing that duet with him. Then again, we were surprised that you ended up not hating Nac's guts. Or anyone's guts."

The agitated grumble Mina expressed indicated how touchy this subject was, "That was almost 2 years ago, Hitch, I've let it go and me and Mylius are good friends. Nac treats him well, and I guess he needed to find out who he was." She regained her composure rather quickly, forcing herself into a calmer state, "This relationship is going to remain professional, I vow. I'm not gonna be falling for anyone any time soon."

Hitch shrugged her shoulders, "Your choice, Carolina, not mine." She took a sip of her drink before speaking next.

"And at least you can cross 'get used like a tissue as someone's beard' off your bucket list," Hitch admitted, a mix of honesty and light-hearted humour intertwined in her tone.

"And you can cross 'have biscotti forcefully pushed into mouth' off yours in about 5 seconds."

* * *

Admittedly, Mina was nervous upon walking into the rehearsal room with Marco by her side, all thanks to Hitch, who practically had a degree in making things awkward for everybody. Truth be told, she didn't know much about this dude, and perhaps she only offered some half-assed vocal lessons because she had previously finished practicing the first half of Watch What Happens for the 17th time in a row and was tired as hell. At least she wouldn't be falling for him any time soon.

All she could really tell about this practically harmless guy was that he was a possible baritenor in the making, was a musical theory student, and had his sights set on using the skills learned from his classes to help write songs for his band.

"Be honest, where did the band name Freckled Jesus and The Springles come from?" Mina asked as she followed him into the room and shut the door behind him. Shrugging off her coat, the corner seemed like a good place to stash all her shit for the next hour and a half.

Setting his bag and jacket in the same corner, Marco perked up at the mention of his unofficial moniker, "Oh, it's a bit of a fable. Long story short, according to my buddy Sasha, I'm kinder than jesus or something like that, and that eventually turned into the name Freckled Jesus, even after we graduated high school. And my buddy's name is Connie Springer, and I suppose that's a bit self-explanatory." Boring Mina with more exposition depicting Sasha's unofficial title as Potato Girls back in their days of secondary school was the last thing Marco wanted to do at the moment.

Nodding, Mina seemed to buy it, "Oh, okay then..." Scooting over to the piano, she sat her ass down on the upright's bench and pushed the cover back. "So tell me, do you really have no past singing experience?"

"My shower really likes the sound of my voice, but that's it," Marco replied, joking, but at the same time, being completely honest with his lack of experience.

She cracked her knuckles with a nod, "Okay then. Lets see what I can do with you." Pressing down on one key right in the middle of the piano, she played a short 5 note riff going down in terms of key, whilst singing the same riff with her vocals in a distinctive 'ah' sound. "Can you repeat after me?"

Once he gave her a nod, Mina played and sung notes one more, Marco being able to follow one octave lower than her, but it was still better than nothing.

Judging from Mina's surprised and intrigued expression on her face, Marco realized that his voice might be better than he expected. Or worse, and Mina was just trying to be nice for the sake of his self-esteem.

"That's pretty good," Mina observed, now playing the exact same riff, but one key below. "I'm gonna keep moving down, okay? Try to follow along. Sing using your chest instead of your throat, got it?"

"Got it," Marco comprehended, giving her a thumbs up as he psyched himself into a determined singing mood.

Mina continued to play the riffs and Marco did all in his power to keep up with his voice. She went down 8 half-steps, including the one before, and Marco followed with all of them, his throat suddenly feeling dry by the 4th and his lungs suddenly starting to hurt right as she got to the 6th.

Thankfully, Mina took her hands away from the keys, which was a good signal for Marco to finally take a long well-deserved breather for a rare free moment.

Raising an eyebrow at his wheezing, Mina smirked, "Holy crap, are you tired already?" Trying to be nice, she scooted off the bench to approach her pile of stuff. What she handed to him ended up being her water bottle. "Drink it, there's a hint of lemon inside."

"Thank you..." Marco wheezed, grabbing the container and taking a quick pull from it, nothing more than what he absolutely needed at the moment. "Damn, how do you singers do that?"

"Years of training," Mina replied in a somewhat cocky fashion, pride in her abilities showing somewhat obviously. "And having really strong lungs usually help. But you're still singing in head voice..." Approaching him, Mina brought herself in rather close proximity with the freckled musician and ended up pressing her hand flat on his stomach. "You can hit really high notes and belt with chest voice. Try using your diaphragm when your breathe."

Brown eyes widening, Marco flinched just slightly and her sudden touch, "I um... uh, what?" With someone currently making physical contact with his abdominals, Marco had the sudden urge to flex his abdominals.

The undeniably dorkish words of confusion coming out of Marco's mouth was enough for Mina to feel his diaphragm barely moving. "See? You should be able feel your stomach rising and falling as you sing." Her hand manoeuvred up to Marco's torso, just grazing his pectorals. "Head voice could work for now, but if you wanna belt, use you're gonna need chest." It only took Mina a few seconds to realize just what she was touching, and when she did, her eyes widened greatly. "Oh, uh... didn't mean to touch you like that." She took her hand away and forced herself to ignore her internal screaming and keep up a nonchalant facade, "My apologies."

"It's fine," Marco assured, hiding a blush as he turned back to the piano. "So, should I sing a song for you, or what?"

Mina crooked her head at him, "Sing a song? We're not done warming up yet."

His jaw dropped in utter shock, "Wait, what!?"

"That was just one warm up, most singers do more to get their voices into shape. I do about 3 before rehearsals and 5 before important performances as a bit of a standard," Mina explained, walking back and sitting back down on the piano bench. She played a new riff, that was quite simple, but still involved a certain amount of vocal effort. "Ready to try singing up the scale?"

Sighing deeply, Marco took another swig of lemon water before nodding his head, "All right, come at me, bro."

-OOO-

Packing up around the last few minutes of rehearsal seemed quite wise in both Mina and Marco's opinion. By now, a cold windy feeling stung inside Marco's throat, which prompted him to unfortunately empty Mina's supply of lemon water.

"Sorry for drinking all this," he apologized honestly as he handed her the empty container.

Mina shrugged it off, slipping her bottle back into her backpack, "It's fine, everyone forgets their water bottle at one point. Just remember to keep one with you if you can. Or, you could try filling up a flask or travel mug with herbal tea. No sugar, decaf, and a little bit of honey to make it taste better."

Most of that flew right over Marco's head, "Uh... okay. I think I can remember that."

"Hey, don't sweat yourself," Mina assured, patting him on the shoulder encouragingly. "It was your first vocal lesson, there's plenty of room for improvement."

"Yeah, I guess," Marco admitted, hand rubbing his nose's tip somewhat nervously. "But be honest with me, am I as bad of a singer than I thought?"

Slinging her bag's straps over her shoulders, Mina let her mind think for a brief moment, "Hm... well, we at least confirmed that you're a baritenor, and that you're gonna need plenty more practice when it comes to belting, but if that whole 'youtube pop singer' voice is what your band is looking for, then you definitely got it."

Acknowledging her constructive criticism as he opened the room's door, Marco nodded, "I think I can work with that. Thanks for the feedback."

"No problem," Mina replied with a polite bow of her head as she followed him out of the rehearsal room. "Besides, with a little bit of work, you'll be right and ready for the stage in no time soon, I can guarantee you."

"We'll have to cross our fingers and see," Marco put out there, half his tone being hopeful with the remaining possibly pessimistic. "But in the mean time, this singing lesson stuff is pretty darn fun. You're lucky that you get to do it more than once a week."

The wince on Mina's face signalled her friend to just how bad of a vocal teacher Mr. Smith could possibly be, "Yeah... maybe not lucky, but at least Mr. Smith helped me get a hang of belting last year. Speaking of which, if you plan to belt with any of your songs, you're gonna need to improve on chest voice." The pat she placed right on Marco's torso was rather playful.

"There's a chance I will," Marco though, thinking back to the last song he composed. It was simple piano-and-vocal-centric tune, probably improved with some rhythm guitar and percussion, which Sasha and Connie would easily be able to provide to him, but with only the score composed, that song was in dire need to lyrics. Heck, and even a title.

The thought of how much of a mess that song would be started to give Marco a headache, and since he had a tendency to faint upon the occurrence of especially bad migraines, he pushed that thought to the back of his mind to prevent him from all out fainting in the middle of the hallway.

Changing the subject helped out greatly, "Anyway, one lesson done, I reckon it's time for payment, right?" They stepped down the academy's hallway, passing various other classes in session as they did so. "Do you have a place where you usually get meals from? Or would you like a recommendation?"

"I kind of eat anywhere, but there's this shawarma place my roommate Annie usually buys from, and you can get a discount if you mention her name," Mina admitted. Annie's minor obsession with the food would be considered concerning in many people's eyes. But musical theatre majors still needed to eat, it didn't matter what their roommates brought home.

Marco made an interested expression, nodding his head in agreement, "Excellent, lead the way then."

* * *

_Disclaimer: I do not own Shingeki No Kyojin, or Watch What Happens. Those belong to Isayama and Disney._


	2. Chapter 2

**_Broadway For Marcomina Week _**

**_Title: Rehearsal Rooms, part 2 _**

_A/n: Here's part two, which I admit was probably the funnest thing to write in this entire series. Oh, and waffle points if you read Thomas's dialogue in the character's Abridge On Titan voice. _

_Enjoy, review if you'd like, and more waffle points if you get the broadway jokes, even though I made them as obvious as hell. _

* * *

One would be surprised to see how quickly the two had intertwined themselves in each other's respective lives. Especially with once a week lessons.

The only classes Marco was taking was his theory classes 3 times a week and not much else, since the degree did not require too much at the academy. Had he gone to a more prestigious school for the degree, his schedule would have been packed to the brim.

Besides going to classes, attending Mina's vocal lessons in exchange for one meal, and balancing that job in a music store to pay the rent, one peculiar thing Marco added to his schedule was this odd extended walk of his he would do once his theory classes ended to seek out the company of a certain pigtailed girl pursuing a musical theatre degree.

Mina's degree required more work than Marco's, therefore, whenever he did find Mina, she'd either be walking out sweaty from either a stage fighting or dance class, somewhat hesitant to speak after a rough vocal class, or her mindset suddenly spewing new facts out theatre history from the lesson learned in that respective class.

It did not deter them from hanging out if she had some seconds to spare. Over the time, there had been occurrences of them walking off into the streets in search of lunch, as well as Marco actually joining her when he provided the promise payment for each single vocal lesson.

Mina admittedly got used to his presence rather quickly. It did not take too long for Mina's opinion on Marco to go from a jerk-ass who stole her rehearsal spot one time, a dork who actually took her offer for singing lessons seriously, to an admittedly still dorky baritenor who seriously wanted to make music a career for him.

His effort was what surprised him the most. She assumed from school rumours that theory students were nerds, but the title of nerd did not give the idea that one student could be so determined to make music a career for him that he would accept second-rate lessons at a school that was primarily for things like acting and dancing. Heck, there were better places for him to go if he wanted theory lessons. But perhaps it was the St. Sina music Conservatory's status as one of the most competitive music schools around to get in with it's rate of accepting 45 students a year that truly deterred him.

RAPA was easier to get into, even with just one audition, and many people did choose this school over others for the flexibility factor. Had it not been for the fact that one can easily take part in other important projects as long as their term's current exam was passed and done for, some of Mina's friends would not have been able to be where they were today.

If only Mina could join some of them at one point or another...

As the case may be, there was a chance that actually completing her musical theatre degree would improve her chances of achieving her dreams of the broadway stage rather greatly. Same with getting an agent, but Mina had no idea how to do that. And none of these factors guaranteed success.

The fact was, Mina would accept any chance to get onto a professional production in the world's quickest heartbeat, degree or not. Finding that chance was hard as hell, but in reality, there was not much of a need to rush it. Besides, at the moment, she was a junior with about 3 semesters left to go before she was awarded with her degree. If broadway was going to wait before popping into her life, Mina was just going to have to let it be and hold on until it came.

And at the moment, there were currently other certain things she had her mind on...

* * *

"C'mon! Everyone knows Fur Elise! How can you call yourself a pianist if you don't know it?" Marco exasperated, throwing his hands up in the air rather dramatically as he leaned against the upright.

From the piano's bench, Mina simply shook her head, "Hey, not everyone's had top-notch lessons like you growing up, Mr. Classically Trained. Besides, my grandfather taught me from what he knew, and I doubt he was ever certified to teach."

"But still, it's practically a staple of piano playing," Marco insisted, sitting back down beside her as he pressed on the keys. "You not knowing Fur Elise is like a white guy with an acoustic guitar at a party not knowing Wonderwall, it's cliche, but it's almost awkward when you don't know and it makes you look untalented."

"Don't say that to Nac," Mina warned, watching Marco's skilled fingers and hands move over the keys swiftly and gracefully. "Mylius has been trying to teach him guitar for months and it hasn't worked out. He'd throw a fit if you mentioned that to him."

Wincing, Marco almost chuckle, "Aye, you make your friends sound so weird. But how come I haven't seen them around the academy too much?"

"Because you come here 3 times a week and most of us come every day," Mina explained. "Besides, Annie's a theatre tech major, so she's always in the auditorium, Hitch hangs out with the shakespeare majors whenever it's school time, and Mylius and Nac don't really like spending time with too many other people than each other. They're one of _those_ couples, if you know what I mean. But come on! My friends aren't that weird!"

The hum and vibration of a phone rung through the room, causing Mina to cease her words and reach for the phone in the pocket. When she got a look at the screen, she was pleasantly surprised, "Oh, and speak of the devils, it's Annie. I might need to take this outside."

Marco nodded as his female friend scooted off the bench and approached the rehearsal room door, "Take your time, Mina."

Once she was slipped out of the room, the Carolina clicked the accept call button and spoke, "What'd Hitch do this time, Annie?"

The familiar monotone of the Leonhardt replied in the usual fashion, _"It's not Hitch this time, Mina, it's sideburns and Bertholdt's look alike."_

Mina raised an eyebrow, "Wait, what?"

_"Little Miss Carolina-comma-Mina! Did you forget? The tour ended last week and I'm back in Trost!"_

_"And I finished filming 3 days ago! Did you not read my email?"_

The familiar voices of two males that rang through the phoneline next cause Mina's jaws to drop in utter shock. Which meant two things: Thomas and Samuel were finally back in town, and Mina was on speakerphone.

"Oh my god! No way! Sam? Tommy? What on earth are you guys doing in my apartment?"

_"Well, me and Thomas wanted to surprise you with us being back in town by barging on your living space with a celebratory bottle of champagne, but only your roommates were home. Where are you? Don't most junior classes end after 4? Are you taking extra-curriculars?"_ Samuel Linke-Jackson replied, his voice holding that familiar degree of shyness that it always had.

"I'm helping a friend out with his singing voice," Mina replied, looking back through the door's glass window pane to see Marco still playing on the piano. "It's a bit of a weekly meetings sort of thing."

Thomas Wagner's loud laughter was heard next, _"Oh ho ho ho! Did our Mina finally pick herself up a boyfriend? Good for you, Carolina, I knew you'd snag yourself some dick if you stopped putting your hair in those pigtails."_

Mina's cheeks blushed a bright red, causing her to facepalm and grumble, "All right, for starters, no, I have no boyfriend at the moment, and as a matter of fact, I've actually gotten lots of compliments on my pigtails once I started bonding more with my actual classmates and not the class's TA."

Despite the fact that it was a phone, she had a sense that Thomas was rolling his eyes, "Whatever. Anyway, what are you doing now? Me and Sammy got loads to tell you!"

"If you didn't hear before, I'm in the middle of helping a friend with his singing voice, but why do you ask?" Mina explained simply.

A shuffling noise was heard, which made it okay to assume that Samuel wrestled the phone away from Thomas, or something along the lines of that. _"Considering the fact that the champagne bottle we popped up once the door opened spewed over your apartment's shoe room and is now an un-fizzy mess, we were thinking of stopping by that pub a few blocks from the academy so we can proceed to chat, drink, and regret it in the morning just like we did on your 19th birthday. Remember? What was the name... Upstage?"_

Mina nodded rather quickly, "Yeah, yeah, I remember Upstage. You guys had to get me a fake ID the first time you brought me there freshman year."

_"I highly doubt that you'll need a fake now, unless you still got that goddamn baby face of yours,"_ Thomas added on, his voice remaining bright and on the bright side. _"So c'mon, Carolina! You up for it or not?"_

She hesitated to answer for a moment, her thoughts suddenly reminding her being that she was in fact technically in the middle of one of her and Marco's sessions. In the past months of them knowing and hanging out with each other, she had not missed a single lesson to ditched out for any reason. Leaving him right now for the sake of catching up with her old friends would be rather selfish of her, but then again, she hadn't seen Thomas ever since he left on his first musical national tour, and Samuel had been anything but communicative ever since he managed to nab his first professional stunt double gig. All Mina knew is that she was never one to leave people hanging, therefore, she finally replied after some seconds of thought.

"... guys, just hold on for one second."

Mina placed her hand on the end of her cell and quickly entered the rehearsal room once more, only to be greeted with Marco's usual playings of time-tested waltzes.

"Hey, do you have any important plans after this?" she asked him, closing the door behind her shut.

Marco ceased his playing and turned his head at her with a raised eyebrow, "Uh... no, unless you count me trying to block out the noise of my roommates while trying to compose. Why do you ask?"

"Some of my old theatre buddies just came back in town and invited me out for drinks, do you wanna come with me?" Mina explained with a small hopeful grin on her face. "It's at this place just down the street named Upstage, and it's fun there. There's a little stage, a piano, and if you slip the name of a song to the barkeep, there is a good chance that he can play the instrumental version on the stereo system if you wanna perform. What do you say? Up for it?"

Before replying, Marco checked his phone for the time, "Welp, seeing that we only have about 7 minutes left in this room, I see no reason why not." He closed the piano's cover on the keys and pulled himself off the bench, "Besides, I've been dying to meet some of those weird friends you've told me all about."

Mina's face lit up in glee as an excited squeal left her lips, "Eee! Fantastic! You are gonna love Sam and Tommy, they're amazing and I know you'll love them." Almost automatically, she took her hand of her phone and replied to her two dork friends, "Hey, guys, I'll be there. And Upstage isn't too far from my apartment, see you in 20?"

Thomas's response seemed more ecstatic than the most flamboyant Marius Pontmercy to ever hit the broadway stage, _"Yeah! Me and Sammy will be there in a heartbeat! See ya soon, Mina!"_

With the plans set, a beaming Carolina hung up the phone in utter joy before running over to the corner of the room to gather all of her things.

Marco was a bit ahead of her, his messenger bag settled gently against his leg, "I didn't know you were the type to hang out in bars. You really seemed more like a coffee shop kind of gal."

Mina's experience as a musical theatre major showed the second Marco turned around, because in mere moments, she was dressed completely in her coat with her backpack safely strapped on her back. "It's been a while since I've been to Upstage. Y'know, school, life, these little lessons and all that jazz."

"I suppo- AH!" Marco's agreeing statement to Mina's words were instantly interrupted when the pigtailed girl grasped her hand tightly around Marco's wrist like a vice before breaking off into a dash, pulling the boy behind her in tow.

"Whoa! Eager, I assume?" Marco asked, rather bewildered at her energy. Perhaps it was just a musical theatre major thing.

"Of course! Now lets go, slowpoke! I don't wanna be late!"

* * *

Marco would be lying to himself if he tried to believe that he wasn't nervous. Stage fright had been his old friend ever since his first childhood piano recital, but this wasn't stage fright, as opposed to social anxiety. Being quite a social butterfly himself, Marco had no idea he was feeling this way. He hadn't thought of meeting Mina's friends in the past while, considering that the two had only known each other for about a month and a half.

Though, it did happen to be a very excellent month and half.

The only few friends of Mina he did meet were Hannah Diamant from Mina's vocals class and a rather handsome looking lug named Franz Kefka who happened to accompany her a lot. Everyone else were merely mentioned to him, whether it be Annie the apathetic theatre tech majoring roommate, or Hitch the other roommate with a long list of Shakespearean insults.

"Mind giving me some exposition on your friends so I don't come off as completely awkward when I meet them?" Marco requested openly as he and Mina strolled down the city street, past the various shops, facilities and all the jazz.

"You're not awkward, Marco," Mina persuaded, placing her hand on his shoulder assuringly. "Besides, you're just gonna have to wait until we meet them. But if you want to know, I met Thomas and Samuel when I was a freshman. They were both TA's in my classes, Thomas in dance and Samuel in stage-fighting. They're both really cool, I swear."

Marco raised a very questionable eyebrow, "Mina, you call Annie really cool right before making her seem like the world's most lazy and apathetic theatre major that could rip your arms off if you cross her."

Admittedly, Mina could agree to how oddly she described her roommate. Annie was a hard enough book to read already, and explaining the good parts of a tough story to other people to make it sound good was difficult no matter what. "Annie is... a bit of a tough cookie, but she's all right."

Upstage suddenly became visible on a street corner, bay windows exposing the reasonably-sized bar that seemed logically crowded for a thursday night.

Like before, Mina found it quite suitable for her to grasp Marco's wrist and start running once more, "There it is, c'mon!"

"Gah! Why do you always insist on pulling!?" Marco exclaimed as he was suddenly jerked across the busy street.

After a girl with pigtails hauled a boy with freckles across busy traffic, thankfully moving fast enough before any car could hit them, she finally let go of his wrist when they made it to the bar's door. Mina entered the place rather swiftly, Marco following behind her like usual, and suddenly, a good sense of nostalgia overwhelmed the musical theatre major.

The brick walls and dark wooden floors of the bar reminded Mina of her days as a freshmen a RAPA, whether she be practicing stage-fighting with Samuel, practicing projection and comedic timing with Thomas, or even spending hours in tech rehearsal while Annie poked wires through Mina's costume while getting her to stand in place long enough to mark it properly with gaff tape. It was the place where she and her peers would go after a successful performance, or even an excellent tech run-through. The celebration of another day with potential of a performing arts related career in the future revered with a pint of the good stuff.

Among the brick walls were neon signs and posters with the names of broadway shows shining bright in the pub's light. It no doubt had been a while since Mina came here, considering how many new posters and signs had been added in.

Marco found the place rather interesting, finding his eyes attracted specifically to an old poster promoting Phantom Of The Opera, "Hm, didn't know they still made Phantom posters."

Mina's eyes darted around the room, looking for her two friends who promised to be present, "They don't, most of these posters are older than me. But I think they added new ones." Suddenly, she dawned upon the heads of one blonde guy with bad sideburns and another guy with a dark undercut way too overdue for a trim.

Thomas had noticed her first and raised his hand to grab her attention, "Hey, Mina! You made it!"

As an excited squeal left her lips, Mina dashed towards the booth her two comrades were currently standing by faster than a speeding bullet and was happily greeted by the arms of Thomas as he held his friend in a dear hug, not minding the fact that he happened to lift her several inches off the ground as he hugged her.

Thomas laughed in his usual bright and positive nature, "Gah, Mina! Did you get smaller since I last saw you or something, you flippin' hamster!?"

The giggling noise Mina made would be considered cute in anyone's eyes, "Maybe, or did you just get stronger from singing Two By Two 8 times a week?"

Samuel got out of his usual shy demeanour spoke up, "Hey, Thomas, let her go, I gotta say hi too."

Thomas looked hurt and gave Samuel his puppy dog eyes, but seeing as Mina was in fact a human being too, he let his pigtailed friend drop back onto the floor, feet landing gently on the wood surface.

Looking up at her friend, making their height difference obvious, Mina gave Samuel a positive beam that seemed long overdue, "Of course, of course, Samuel, how could I ever forget you, Sammy?" The height difference only became more apparent when Mina had to step onto her tip-toes to embrace Samuel in a hug. "Goddammit, Sam, I think you're taller than I remember."

"Still 6'2, still going strong," Samuel assured, letting Mina go once the hug felt like it had long expired. Across the room, in the spur of the moment, Samuel manage to notice the odd freckled guy watching the trio embrace each other with a rather oriented expression on his face, as if he were waiting for orders or something. Samuel pointed to him with his fingers, "Who's the freckles over there?"

"Oh, whoops, my bad." Hastily, Mina raised her hand and signalled Marco to come over to them, which he complied to with a nod. "Sorry for leaving you waiting there like that."

Marco shook his head, "Naw, it's fine." His eyes quickly darted over to the Wagner and the Linke-Jackson, "Gentlemen, I don't believe we've met." He held out a hand politely for a handshake, "Marco Bodt, nice to meet you."

Samuel reciprocated Marco's handshake first, "Samuel Linke-Jackson, it's a pleasure."

"Sammy over here just came back from filming his first movie, where he was the dashingly handsome stunt double who did all of the dangerous feats while the famous overly-attractive actor got all the credit," Mina disclosed, her honest words being flattering enough to make Samuel blush.

"Stunt double, huh?" Marco stated with an intrigued expression on his face, looking up at the taller man with a positive expression. "Dude, that's amazing."

Samuel's blushing intensified, "Yeah, well, it cost a few scars, but it's my first professional gig, so I guess I should be proud of it."

Marco nodded towards Samuel's statements. After, he would have held out his hand towards Thomas with the same intentions, but the second he detached from Samuel, he felt a large pair of hands wrap around him to pull the guy into a rather suffocating hug. "Gah! Okay, did not expect that!" Thankfully, due to Marco's taller height, Thomas's hug didn't lift Marco into the air. But it did not stop Thomas from squeezing him as tight as possible.

Eventually, when Thomas did cut the hug to a halt and released a very surprised Marco out of his grip, his only explanation seemed to be: "So sorry, but I'm a hugger, I'm sure Mina can vouch for me on that." But, seeing as Marco was so polite before, Thomas reached out and grabbed Marco's hand in the same fashion earlier, "Anyway, the names Thomas Wagner. But go ahead and call me Tommy, I won't get mad."

Mina cut in once more to add some more exposition to the possibly lost Marco, "Thomas got a gig as an ensemble member on the Book Of Mormon national tour and the production finally ended after a year and a half."

Thomas smiled proudly, "Yep. Gotta admit though, touring is fucking hell man. Some days, I felt like the happiest guy in the world performing live theatre every night. But other days, I'd just cringe and say hasa diga eebowaii over and over again in my head."

With wide startled eyes, Marco was still recovering from Thomas's sudden hug in a daze, the broadway reference going right over his head, "Uh... okay." Shaking it off, Marco managed to regain himself in a matter of seconds, producing a friendly smile at the blonde boy in the process, "So uh... shall we sit down?"

"Of course, of course!" Thomas proclaimed, motioning over to the booth that he and Sam were standing by before scooting in himself.

Samuel pushed himself next to Thomas on one side, while Marco moved in right after Mina did on the other, the poofy leather seats proving themselves to be rather comfortable.

Sighing happily, the sense of sentimentality overwhelmed Mina as she took in the aura of the place, "God, I haven't been here in a long time."

"Really?" Thomas asked with an eyebrow raised. "I thought the last time I saw you, you claimed to have enough spare time to do 2 shows and still pass your classes."

Mina blew some air through her lips like a horse and shrugged his statement off, "Thomas, that was freshmen year. I was stupid and dumb, and I hung out with you two all the time."

Thomas pretended to look hurt, his puppy dog eyes showing themselves once more in less than 5 minutes, "Aw, you're so harsh, Mina."

Samuel could sense a possible argument coming up, or Thomas simply being his overdramatic self again. Thinking smartly, he managed to change the subject, "So Marco, what do you do for a living? Are you a student at RAPA?"

Marco looked over to Samuel and gave him a rather assuring nod, "Yes, I'm currently taking theory classes at the academy to help compose for my band."

Thomas looked intrigued at the word 'band', "Oooh! A band, you say?"

"Kind of, that's what I'm going for if I manage to get a few songs written and composed. My friends Sasha and Connie promised to be in it the second I write my first original song with a decent score," Marco admitted sheepishly, shrugging off his coat and letting it lay on the leather seats. Patting Mina on the shoulder, he added onto his explanation, "But in the meantime, Mina's been helping me out with my singing voice, and while she'll probably deny it, she's as much of an excellent vocal coach as she is a singer."

Mina's cheeks went rosy in embarrassment, "Shut up, Marco, I'm not that good! I just tell you what my teachers have been telling me for years."

Thomas looked like he was just hit with the ultimate epiphany and gasped, "Oh! So you're the dude our Mina's been drillin'!" He did not see the possibly double entendre in that sentence. "You're gonna be the lead singer in a band, that's pretty cool."

Marco shrugged his shoulders, "Yeah, well, the band is just an idea, and I'm not even sure about me becoming a singer. It would be an honour to perform original stuff at gigs with a band, but maybe I can just get a composing job with my degree, or teach people how to play piano for a living if it doesn't work out. Either way, a job's a job, right?"

Mina looked almost appalled that Marco would say such a thing, "Hey, don't think like that! I'm sure your band's gonna work out." She placed her hand on Marco's wrist, this time as a sign of assurance as opposed to drag him somewhere like before. "Just because it might not happen, doesn't mean that it's gonna be impossible. Look, we never thought that Thomas would get over his audition anxiety, but look at him now: First national production tour done and the Book Of Mormon tucked right under his belt. With any chance you're given, you should be driven as hell."

Marco's eyes looked down to Mina's hand touching him for a split second, then looking back up to her for another brief moment, fighting back what could have been a blush and admiring the desire shining in her eyes, "Well, I guess when you put it that way... wait, are you quoting Legally Blonde?"

Thomas's eyes lit up greatly upon the mention of the peppy production, "Mina, you've taught this guy well."

Mina scoffed lightheartedly, "It's probably because I gave him a list of musicals to watch to find some good songs to practice on."

"And at the moment, I'm done with all the Andrew Lloyd Webber and moving onto Alan Menken," Marco added on, giving Mina a rather playful look considering the fact that this girl would worship the ground the legendary composer stepped on.

"Oh god, don't get Mina started on Alan Menken, she'll bore you to tears," came a monotoned voice with apathy ingrained inside it.

Looking up towards the open end of the booth, Mina smiled upon seeing her roommate standing there with a tray of glasses and one lager filled pitcher, "Oh, Annie! I didn't know you'd be here."

Annie shrugged her shoulders as she put the tray down, "Haven't been to Upstage in a while and I've spent too many hours of this month being sober. Could use a good night out. Your two dorks invited me anyway." The blonde theatre technician poured herself a glass of the good stuff before scooting herself into the booth, finding it rather comfortable on Thomas and Samuel's side. They seemed to remind her of a certain blonde brawny boy and sweaty skyscraper. Without warning, her eyes instantly locked onto the new freckled face sitting by Mina's side, "New guy, what's your name?"

"I don't believe we've met before," Marco started, doing the same polite thing he did earlier to properly greet this girl with a handshake. "I'm Marco Bodt. You must be Annie, Mina's roommate, right?"

Annie looked at Marco's hand as if it had danced with its own master with a expression of distaste, then back up to him with the same glare, "At least Mina was right about you being friendly."

Marco raised an eyebrow at Annie's apparent hostility, but seeing as it would be pointless to focus on it for too long, his response was still light hearted, "I've been told that a lot." He decided to distract himself like a mature adult would and poured himself a glass of lager from the pitcher to enjoy.

Annie's attention quickly went to her roommate, "I swear, Pigtails, if you start another Menken-Sondheim argument, I'm gonna chug this all until I pass out."

Samuel's face twisted into a wince, "Oooh, she's right, Mina. Whenever we dare criticize Menken, you look like you're gonna castrate someone." The composer's fangirl found herself looking down in a mix of shame and amusement at the extremely correct statement.

Taking a long pull from his glass and setting it down, Marco nodded, "I have to agree. I admit that I start fearing for the safety of my balls whenever I say something about how overrated Menken is."

Thomas's throaty laugh made itself audible once more, at the expense of Mina's face subtly heating up in embarrassment, "Dude, true that 100 percent. You do not want to know what happened the last time I called Newsies 'the 90s boyband of broadway.' I swear, the only good thing about that day was the fact that Mina's a flippin' hamster compared to me and she can't hurt me when I place my hand on her head and push her away."

The entire table managed to burst out into laughter, and even Annie produced a small satisfied smirk behind the half-filled glass.

And under her breath, in her blushing state of embarrassment, Mina mumbled to herself, "Hasa diga eebowai."

-OOO-

The night carried on rather well, with Thomas and Samuel sharing more shenanigans and memories involving their pigtailed friend, Marco adding in his own somewhat witty commentary, Annie spending most of the time checking her phone with that confounded game involving a bird that was flappy, and Mina finding it easier and easier to hide her embarrassment as the night carried on.

Seeing as the pitcher was now empty, Thomas volunteered to pay for the next one, considering how better he was getting paid ever since he got on his first professional production gig. Scooting out of the booth, Annie had to push herself out first, followed by Samuel, and then finally the Book Of Mormon ensemble member with terrible sideburns.

"Just note, guys, there is a really good chance that I might finish half the pitcher myself, and might get up on that stage to sing a song," Thomas warned, obviously bringing attention to the small raised portion of the bar's floor with a baby grand popped up on top.

Mina's eyes lit up, "Oooh, a song you say. Let me guess, Rodgers and Hammerstein's?"

"You're gonna have to wait and see..." Thomas teased in a sing-songy voice, walking off with a playful smirk on his face.

Samuel was intrigued by the idea of singing, seeing how long it had been since he last sang and how stunt doubles were only used for their stunts and not voices. "Can we make it a duet?" He followed his blonde friend with a hopeful expression that was so bright that puppies would get jealous of him.

"Oh, Sam..." Mina sighed happily, smiling at the warm familiarity of Thomas's impromptu musical numbers and Sam's desire to sing. "You know, I don't know why I let those two dorks leave in the first place. I can't live without them. Then again though, who am I to stand in the way of their careers, right?" She turned to her side to pat Marco quickly on the shoulder, "Anyway, I gotta use the little broadway nerd's room, mind scooting?"

Marco complied to her request and shuffled himself out of the booth, letting Mina step out before scooting back in.

Mina was about to walk off to the back of the bar, but Annie reached out and stopped her friend for a brief second with the simple motion of grabbing her arm, "Hey, if you're gonna throw up, I'm not gonna hold your hair back this time. This spot is too comfy to move."

Mina laughed, mostly amused at her roommate's blunt statement, though, she did hope it was a joke. "Okay then, I haven't drank too much, but I'll call up Hitch if I need too." She then left the booth with a small smirk on her face, leaving Annie alone with this random freckled guy that at truly did live up to most of the things Mina said about him back in their apartment.

Annie's ice blue eyes glared up to Marco, who was in the middle of finishing the last bit of lager in his glass, "So..." There was way too much proof that Annie Leonhardt was terrible at starting conversations, especially with new people.

"So..." Marco replied somewhat nervously, setting his empty glass down, letting the rather bitter taste slip down his throat. "Mina tells me that you major in theatre tech, am I correct?"

Blunt words were not common from Annie's lips, but Marco was not expecting her to seem so brutal in her next statement, "What do you want with her?!" The look in her eyes was sharper and more cold than an icicle in the world's coldest winter.

Marco coughed in surprise, completely caught of guard, "Uh... I'm sorry, what? Who?"

"You heard me, freckles, what do you want with Mina?" Annie re-stated, retaining that certain element of stinging bluntness.

"I, uh..." Marco stuttered, his mind suddenly racing to come up with a good reply. "I want her to... teach me to become a better singer for my band? That's really it." He had a small sense that being completely and almost naively honest with this girl would end in him being threatened in some sort of matter, but it was the only logical answer he had.

Annie looked displeased, "Tch, fine then, don't tell me."

"No, I swear, that's all I want from her," Marco insisted, throwing his hands up in the air like an infomercial actor. "Wait, what do you think I want from her?"

"Cut the act, freckles," Annie demanded, her glare on him tightening. "I see the way you look at her. I know that look."

It was as if Marco stole Mina's rehearsal room all over again, "Uh... yeah, I think she's alright, who wouldn't, but what look?"

"A look that says I'd laugh enjoy getting into this girl's pants and breaking her heart," Annie accused, wagging a finger at him.

A blush surged onto Marco's face as such an assumption, coating his cheeks red in consideration to what she was implying, "What!? No! I don't think of Mina in that way, or any romantic way!"

This answer seemed to satisfy Annie a little bit, "You don't?"

Marco shook his head quickly, "No, not at all..." Truth be told, among their month and a half of practicing with Mina every week in a small rehearsal room on how to belt better, thoughts of Mina like that barely crossed his mind, as there were other things to focus on at the moment.

But now that Annie mentioned it, Marco's mind started to wonder, did he like Mina in that way?

She was cute, pulled off pigtails very nicely, and was probably one of the kindest girls Marco had ever met, even if one did insult Alan Menken in her presence or steal her rehearsal room time, but so far, Mina seemed way too busy to be good relationship material.

Or was she? She certainly had time to teach Marco how to hone his baritenor in return for a meal, and attend her classes at RAPA, perhaps a special someone could be squeezed into her schedule somehow...

The entire concept clouding Marco's mind ignited a small epiphany in his mind, but seeing as Annie was right in front of him and he only had so much time to think, Marco answered very minutely, "... I think."

This explanation seemed to work well, as Annie nodded her head, "All right then. But just remember this, freckles, Mina's one of my closest friends, you hurt her, you will face me."

Marco nodded very quickly, "Of course, of course. Yes, sir."

"I'm a woman."

Right after she spoke, Mina came back to the table in a typical relaxed fashion, "Hey, did I miss anything?"

Annie shook her head, her usual lone wolf nature rearing its ugly head, "Nope."

Marco did the same as her, forcing his expression to appear calm and collected, despite his head shake being quick and hasty, "N-no! Nothing at all."

The glare Annie gave to him could cut glass.

* * *

_"What do you want, Marco? I've got an extra-curricular hip-hop class in 15 and a pop 'n lock to perfect. If you need me to give you another phone Trost tour, you're outta luck, buddy."_

"It's nothing like that, it's something else, and I can't really talk to Sasha and Connie about it, they can't take anything seriously," the freckled boy explained, his voice holding a small element of desperation.

As expected, Jean said the first thing on his mind,_ "Oh my god, are you coming out?"_

Marco wanted to facepalm himself, "Dude! No! I thought we established this already, I'm okay with you being bi as long as you're okay with me being straight."

Jean chuckled over the phone, _"Yeah, yeah, I know, and I still respect your boundaries, bro. No worries. Besides, I kinda have an aryan coconut I grabbed coffee with last week to keep me busy. Y'know the tap major I told you about?"_

Tapping into his memory, Marco recalled, "Oh right, I remember. Arlene?"

_"Armin,"_ Jean corrected, someone pissed that his best friend barely paid attention to the rare event of the Kirschtein discussing his love life. _"Anyway, what do you need?"_

Marco made the choice to be straight to the point, taking a deep breath before letting the words leave his lips, "What do you do when you like someone, but you didn't know it at first, their scary friend seemed to accuse you of simply wanting to sleep with them, and then that same scary friend's accusations became the thing that triggered you into feeling something for them?"

Jean's response was as honest as ever, _"Jump off a cliff."_

The sound of Marco facepalming echoed through the phone, "Be serious, Jean. You're my best friend and the most honest guy I've ever met. What do you do when you realize you have a crush on someone you're really good friends with? Even with the whole scary friend out of the picture."

_"Well, since consuming vodka every night for dinner would get pricy, you could always try just being a really damn good friend to them at first,"_ Jean answered, trying to think of something suitable that would work for Marco._ "Try being kind to them, try being nice to them, try being gentle to them. People tend to like that stuff, and I know for a fact that you're really fucking good at being kind and shit."_

Modestly, Marco did have enough an ego to at least agree with Jean's statements, that happened to be rather true. "Being kind, I can do that. I can try at least."

_"Yeah, dude, and here's some advice you should take to the heart,"_ Jean started, some shuffling noises being heard in the background, implying that he was multitasking at the moment. _"No matter the circumstances or what'll happen if you do, but if you really care about them, support them no matter what."_

Marco nodded quickly, even though Jean could not see him, "Right, right. Be kind, be gentle, and support. Okay, got it. Thanks, Jean."

_"You're welcome, my good friend. And hey, if you're still in that state of wanting someone to notice you as more than a friend, don't be afraid if you wanna do something special for them,"_ Jean added on.

"Something special?" Marco questioned.

_"Yeah, something special. People like feeling special, like every single goddamn student in my fucking high school. All those fuckers had a bad case of special snowflake syndrome that lasted all through senior fucking year, but I can see why they felt that way. Seniors are special, for some reason,"_ Jean dawdled on, not minding that he was heading into an odd topic. At least all the shallowness and ego of high school got completely destroyed upon college years.

Marco's face took on an expression of confusion, "... Jean, I went to high school with you."

_"I know, and you're still a special fucking snowflake in my book, bro,"_ Jean said a little too brutally. Before Marco could reply, the conversation had to be cut short_. "Anyway, I gotta jet now. Don't be a dick, don't be afraid to do something special, be yourself 'cause you're the sweetest fucking guy I know, and support them no matter what. See ya!"_

"Wait! Jean! Don't hang up when you ju-" Marco lacked the ability to speak fast enough, as Jean had hung up right there. Sighing, Marco took his phone away from his ear and looked at the blank screen. It was nice to know that Jean and Marco still maintained their friendship well, even with Jean's new life up in Stohess taking up most of his time.

Sighing, Marco put his phone back into his pocket and stood up, his mind vaguely remaining certain parts of him and Jean's conversation. Comprehending the words given to him would have been appropriate, but Marco soon realized that the more he thought about the topic of conversation, the more his headache intensified.

Therefore, Marco decided to follow one particular tidbit of advice Jean told him to help him with his situation. But seeing as a cliff was no where in sight, he made due with rolling off the couch and falling face-first onto the floor.

Jean was right, this was a great thing to do when dealing with new romantic feelings.

* * *

_Feel free to get #SandriOnlyKnowsEntryLevelBroadwayComposerCuzThey'reTotalFuckingTrash trending on twitter. _

_And be aware that hasa diga eebowai means 'fuck you god' in Swahili. Have a nice day!_


	3. Chapter 3

**_Broadway for Marcomina Week _**

**_Title: Rehearsal Rooms, part 3 _**

_A/n: Finally! It's done! Well, technically I wrote all of this as a 20 000 word one-shot, but that's a lot of words for a one-shot, so I split it up into 3 parts for convenience. _

_Anyway, review if you like it, because I'm actually really proud of this, and have fun!_

* * *

Mina looked over Marco's sheet music, managing to get past his scribbly handwriting to see the notes and imagine how they would sound in her head. Her sight reading ability was okay, but she did comply more to the notes representing vocals as opposed to the ones representing piano notes, seeing as vocals were her stronger forte.

"Interesting song, Marco. What's the style though? R and B? Pop? Jazz?"

"The style I was aiming for was jazz club kind of tone, but a while back, I fiddled with the tempo and went up the octave to give it a bit of an intimate piano ballad sound," Marco explained, stretching out his hands in preparation to play the rehearsal room's upright. "I added some vocal harmonies on the chorus if you don't mind sight reading. Think it'll sound good?"

"It might," Mina concluded, looking over the staffs cautiously. "For the vocals in general though, just remember that singers need time to breathe."

"I remembered," Marco admitted, pushing the key cover back and pressing a certain chord. "Now, shall we warm up before I show you my awesome new song for you?" The confidence in his expression was a bit of a testament to how easier it was getting for Marco to prep his singing voice without her assistance. Obviously, he was learning plenty.

Mina smiled in response to her student's new habit, but before she could reply, she was suddenly hit with a quick case of deja vu when her phone vibrated in her pocket. Attention grabbed, Mina reached into her pocket and pulled her device out, taking notice to the name on the screen. The feeling of deja vu intensified when she recognized who was calling. It caused her to take her eyes away from the screen for just a second to look at Marco, "Hey, think you can warm up yourself?"

Marco complied simply, pressing the keys calmly, "Of course, of course. Take your time."

"You're a saint," Mina grinned as she approached the door and stepped out of the room. "Don't push yourself too hard though."

The okay sign Marco gave her with his fingers was a good enough response for her.

Once out of the room and in the hall, Mina answered the phone, "It's nice to know that you're at least using your own phone this time, Thomas."

Thomas chuckled on the other end,_ "Yeah, thanks for giving me your new number, by the way. It was very helpful today._"

The last bit of Thomas's sentence caught Mina's attention, "Helpful? What do you need?"

A confident chuckle followed, _"Hah! I don't need this, but I know for a fact that you're gonna need this, Mina."_ He took a dramatic pause,_ "2 words: Natalie Goodman."_

Mina was left confused, one eyebrow raised, "Excuse me?"

_"Natalie Goodman, Mina!"_ Thomas repeated. _"Y'know, the sister in Next To Normal?"_

She had no idea where Thomas was going with this, "Yeah, what about her?"

_"I'm at a workshop audition for a production of n2n, I'm probably not gonna make it in since I'm too handsome and that intimidates everyone, but they're really fucking desperate for a good Natalie,"_ Thomas explained, anticipation building in his voice. _"So I told the director that I know a soprano at RAPA who totally nailed A Heart Full Of Love in her freshman year and has the perfect Watch What Happens in her arsenal. Then the director told me that if she gets here in an hour and auditions, there is a really good chance that the role will be hers."_

Mina's eyes widened in surprise, not being able to believe what she was hearing, "Wait, what!? What is this? A national tour? A revival?"

_"Off-broadway revival,"_ Thomas explained. Though, it was questionable why one would revive such a modern musical such as Next To Normal. Perhaps popular demand was a major factor. _"But listen, n2n still has a loyal fanbase, so they might transition it into a legit broadway show if they get popular enough."_

The words 'legit broadway' positively triggered Mina onto cloud nine, a wondrous smile taking her face, "Legit broadway? Thomas, you better not be shitting me..."

_"I'm not! I swear!"_ Thomas insisted, holding back his glee as he spoke. _"Get your ass over here, Carolina! It's just an hour by subway, and bring your sheet music if you can! I'll text you the address!"_

"I can, I always have a song on me, and yeah, I could get over there in an hour," Mina informed, her nerves burning with excitement. But suddenly, the glass shattered when she realized where she was and what time is was. "Wait, hold on though, I'm with Marco!"

_"Awww! I knew you two would get together eventually,"_ Thomas cooed cutely. _"I mean, I knew it would happen soon, because Mina, I swear to god, when you brought him drinking with us, you looked at him like you were dying to get your hands on some of that freckled dick. I don't blame ya, I'd feel the same way, but you saw him first and I must respect that."_

Mina blushed rather harshly and was suddenly thankful that Thomas couldn't see her through a phone, "S-shut up! It's not like that! No, I'm in the middle of another session with him. I just can't leave like this!"

Thomas chuckled, _"I'm just teasin', Mina. But c'mon, all you ever did freshman year when we were hanging was talk about making your broadway debut. That was all I heard: Broadway, broadway, and guess what? Even more broadway! Mina Carolina, are you really going to tell me right now, that despite making a secret vow to make it on broadway no matter what, you're gonna just look a potential life-changing audition in the eye and say no?! Just because you made an odd promise to a weird freckled guy?"_

"He's not just a weird freckled guy, he's Marco," Mina insisted. "He's my friend, and I just can't abandon him."

_"This is a chance you've been given!"_ Thomas reminded. _"And you're telling me that you aren't driven as hell? C'mon! It's an audition, but I know you'll make it! I told them your vibrato is as good as Alice Ripley's and way more controlled than Hugh Jackman's! Get over here and prove me right!"_

"I told you, I can't just leave Marco here, we have an agreement," Mina explained, looking back into the room via the door's window pane, where her freckled friend appeared to be arranging his sheet music on the music stand. "He's my friend..."

_"So am I,"_ Thomas reminded. _"Come on, I want you to come here so I can come back to this theatre months from now with a front row ticket and the ability to tell whoever I'm sitting beside that I know one of the leads in this production."_ If only he could add his puppy dog eyes for extra help. _"Please come, Mina, I can't wait to see you blow these guys away with your soprano."_

Mina took a moment to breathe, considering her situation in her mind. She enjoyed her perfect record of meeting up with Marco on time every week without missing a single rehearsal slot, the only time she did was when she went to meet up with Thomas and Sam last month, but that was last month, and she even brought Marco with her.

Marco would understand, he was one of the nicest sweethearts she had ever met, and that initial nice factor was possibly the reason she got so attached to him.

How far would that attachment last though? It wasn't like a commitment or anything, not like a phone plan, or a subscription to a magazine, could she stop whenever necessary? Heck, she wasn't even stopping, this was just a pause to take part in other activities.

It couldn't be that bad, right?

After enough time to think passed, Mina replied, "... I'll be there." Hastily, she ended the call, not wanting to hear Thomas's excited cheer in favour of prioritizing her thoughts on something else. Looking back towards the room, she approached the door and re-entered.

Marco seemed to be practicing simple piano scales on the instrument when she entered, "Hey, is something up?" He noticed her nervous state quickly.

"No, everything's fine," Mina insisted.

Marco raised an eyebrow, "Really? Then explain why you look like you've got a secret to hide?"

She had never been that good at keeping things hidden from people, so she came out honestly, "I have to go."

Confused, Marco crooked his head, "Go? Like, to the bathroom?"

Mina had to clarify, "Thomas called, and he said that there's this open audition for Next To Normal across town happening right now. It's a bit of a revival, but he says they might transition to real broadway if it's popular enough. He dropped a word about be and now they want to see if I'll make a good Natalie Goodman."

Marco was not too familiar with rock musicals, but he nodded in comprehension, "Oh, that's actually really great."

"I know, it is," Mina informed, a small grin creeping onto her face, only to be shot down in mere seconds. "It's just... we're in the middle of a lesson, you're gonna show me your song and I don't wanna just leave you hanging."

The factor of how much Mina cared about his career and talent surprised him, "What? No, I uh... forget about it, Mina."

"Huh?" she asked as she crooked her head.

"I can show you another time," Marco insisted, standing up to grab the sheets laying out the vocals off a nearby music stand. "My little song really isn't anything compared to an audition like that."

"But it's your song, and you're in this school just so you could compose something for your band," Mina reminded. "I know this is special for you and I want to at least hear it once."

Marco took his papers back, eyes glue to the floor as he spoke, "It is special to me, but broadway's special to you." The words of Jean rung in his ears: _support them no matter what._

He found it in himself to look up and see the soft expression on Mina's face, "Just go and rock that audition, I'll be fine here. I've got this room for the next hour, I can practice on my own."

Face fighting to express content, sorrow, and overwhelming joy, a pause followed in Mina's dialogue, a pregnant silence filling the sound proof walls of the room. Marco simply expected her to smile and say thanks, but what he saw next was unexpected.

Mina walked towards him with strong steps, and once close enough, held out her arms and wrapped them around him rather tightly. In all honesty, it did surprise her how much he gave a damn about her dream. It was not like she gushed to him about how many times she dreamt of making her broadway debut like she did with Annie, and in her memories, she had only mentioned a few times in favour of focusing on the lesson.

He cared about her, he supported her, he gave a damn about her goals. And for that, Mina was filled with the feeling of gratitude.

Eyes widening in surprise, Marco tensed up quickly, the only movement he was able to muster being him moving his neck to look down at her. Seeing her with her head pressed against his chest was undoubtedly adorable and kind of worrisome. What he felt in the moment totally contradicted when he said to Annie last month.

Eventually, Mina pulled away from him, looking up at his face with a warm grin and earnest eyes, "Thank you."

Luckily, Marco had gotten better at hiding his nervous blushes, "Y-y-you're welcome. Now go to the audition."

"You're amazing, you know that?" Mina smiled, turning around to gather up all her stuff.

"I've been told," Marco said, watching her gather up her gear with skills earned from years of changing backstage with a 15 second time-slot. Speaking of seconds, barely a few passed before she got all her stuff assembled and left the room.

Sighing, Marco grudgingly returned back to the piano bench. Perhaps Freckled Jesus and The Springles's new single _Something Special_ could be played for someone another time.

* * *

The march season brought on sun over the district of Trost, which was very refreshing towards the citizens. Classes still held on as normal, especially Marco's theory sessions held inside a stuffy classroom, but he did manage to catch the stage-fighting and dance classes deciding to hold their classes outside. Anothing thing that Marco noticed was the fact that it was that particular time of year again where people tended to start slacking off, or started consuming copious amounts of coffee to prevent from slacking off.

Marco noticed the Shakespeare majors were getting irritable, as Boris Feulner and Marlowe Frudenberg had gotten into an argument which escalated into a full fight. Thankfully, the two were not stage-fighting majors, and the only things being exchanged were Boris's screams on how Marlowe's mother was a hamster and Marlowe insisting that Boris's father smelt of elderberries. Finals and critiques really fucked a lot of people up.

Marco himself was not too worked up on finals, as all he had to do was a simple theory exam as opposed to a critique, but he did find himself slipping just a little bit in his classes. He did have to completely bullshit his way through an answer when Ms. Brzenska randomly asked him in the middle of the class the significance of staccato strings. At least he made it through, and a long test was a little bit better than a final critique performance.

Throughout the month, Marco noticed the musical theatre majors scurrying around the rehearsal rooms as he walked past the hall on a random weekday. It seemed logical that they would feel this way about a performance, but as he watched the majors fight over rehearsal room time, the memory of a certain pigtailed broadway hopeful just had to creep into his mind.

For a guy who only came by the academy 3 times a week, not seeing one person in this one place should not have bothered him. Besides, he had his shift at the music shop to worry about the other 4 days of the week. But somehow, Marco could not help but wonder where on earth Mina was.

Of course, seeing as RAPA was post-secondary education, one would not get detention for not attending for a few weeks as long as their critiques were still performed and marked. But still, he could recall Mina being greatly dedicated to her classes, whether they be vocals, stage-acting, dance, or even stage-fighting. Her absence gave Marco the impression that Mina was intending to quit RAPA.

Not everyone needed schooling in the performance industry. Heck, Marco's distant cousin Ymir made it fine as a hiphop dancer without going to a lofty school like Jean was. Still, would Mina really be that quick to leave? One audition and she would be gone like the wind?

Mina's career was hers to use and control, that was true, but seeing her simply leave just like that left an emptiness in Marco's wasted heart. Not seeing her step out of a dance class laughing with Hannah Diamant made Marco's commute from RAPA's front door to the room of his theory classes a little less positive. Not seeing her in the mornings with her daily chamomile tea in her hands as she went to Mr. Smith's vocal classes was not as fun as it sounded.

And coming to booked rehearsal rooms and waiting for her for an hour was simply saddening.

Mina made a vow to never miss their sessions together, but her simply not being there on time, and not being there at all, left a hole in his heart. The only thing that filled that hole was disappointment. She didn't answer his texts, let alone his calls, but Marco pushed that feeling of discouragement to the back of his mind. Perhaps she was busy, which lots of people were. Speaking of busy, that state was something he tried to keep up for himself.

At this moment in time, Marco's time in rehearsal room 14 was reaching the end. As he anticipated, Mina did not arrive, but Marco was not surprised as the first 2 weeks of him waiting there for nothing prepped him for the feeling. Still, he utilized his rehearsal time to keep his piano skills in top shape, compose on a piano that was far better than the epiano with a broken pedal he had at his apartment, and even perform some of his original work.

Marco made the choice to end his session 4 minutes early and gathered up all of his music into his bag. With everything assembled, he opened the door of the rehearsal room and stepped out into the hallway. His feel shuffled him to the hall's stair case, his eyes skimming the other rehearsal rooms mindlessly to see other people rehearsing and practicing, just as he was.

Approaching the stairs, Marco was about to walk down them, but before he could, he caught a glimpse of familiar, something very familiar. Eyes taking a second take at rehearsal room 16, he was extremely surprised to see who was in there.

Inside, Mina Carolina only stopped practicing the verse of Watch What Happens when a particular freckled friend of her knocked on the glass window. Turning her head, the sight of him made her face express some rather subdued surprise. In mere seconds, she shuffled through the large room and opened up the door quickly.

Looking down at her, Marco didn't speak, he simply glanced at her as if she was a piece of art in an exhibit that no one knew what to think of. His throat was suddenly dry, and he lacked the ability to speak.

Thankfully, while looking back up at him, Mina managed to swallow the lump in her throat and talk, "... hi."

"Hi," Marco managed to reply once the pregnant silence between them was broken. "Haven't seen you in a while."

"Yeah, same..." Mina agreed, nodding her head. Perhaps her voice was tired from practicing, or she simply found it hard to speak with him. Which was odd, considering how well she clicked with this guy. "I uh... I'm practicing for my critique next week."

"Oh, again?" Marco asked, intrigued.

Mina nodded, walking back in the room with the expectation that Marco would follow, "Yeah, just doing some touch ups before the performance. I got Watch What Happens down back in January just to avoid all the stress of last minute practicing, but I wanted to make sure I still had it in me. I've been singing way more, y'know."

Marco did in fact follow her inside, "Really? But what about the audition though? What happened there?"

Mina grasped her water bottle and took a seat on a tall stool, "Do you really want to know?" She took a swig of her water as she waited for his reply.

He nodded earnestly as he found his own place on the piano bench, a seat that he always found comfortable, "Of course. That audition seemed pretty damn important to you. And I haven't seen you in a while, think you can catch me up?"

Putting the water bottle down, Mina swallowed the lemon-laced liquid along with the uncomfortable nervous lump in her throat before replying, "Well, if you really want to know, the audition went well. I had to come back for a callback audition, but that was it."

That explanation did not provide too much, but Marco was smart enough to fill in the blanks himself, "So... did you get in?"

Mina nodded, "Yep, I did. Say hello to the future off-broadway Natalia Goodman."

Marco's face and eyes lit up, "Mina, that's amazing!" He smiled at her genuinely, "You're in a real production now, that's great!"

"I know," Mina said officially, looking down with a modest smile. "I'm excited, but I'll have to stop coming here though..."

This caught Marco off guard, "Wait, what? You're quitting RAPA?"

Mina shook her head automatically, "No, not technically. The classes here are flexible and you can explore other projects as long as your tests and critiques are taken care of. I'm not quitting, and I haven't even thought of quitting. I'm actually post-poning my classes and degree for a while." She took a pause of hesitance, letting the words in her mind web themselves together before saying them, "It's just, for the past few weeks, I've just been really busy. I've been meeting up with directors, choreographers, vocal trainers, and there's even this one lady who wants to be my agent. I can't exactly balance school with all that going on. Heck, I've only been coming to classes twice a week. Those happen to be days when you're not here, but I can't go juggling rehearsals and classes like this forever. One of them has to go, Marco, and you know me well enough to know what I'd give up."

The truth in Mina's words were more apparent than Hugh Jackman's vibrato, Marco did know Mina well. He knew that she wouldn't let a chance to be in a broadway show like this slip away like leaves from a vine. She'd put herself out there, she'd accept her chance on the stage with open arms.

Marco nodded his head minutely, complying to her beliefs, "Of course, Mina. It's fine, that makes perfect sense. Besides, all that broadway gushing you subjected me to wasn't for no reason, right?"

"No, it wasn't," Mina agreed. "This is my chance, Marco. With this chance I've been given, I'm gonna be..."

"... driven as hell," Marco completed for her, a small amused grin growing on his face. "Yeah, I know the song."

Mina seem entertained at his ability to finish her sentences and chuckled, "Yeah, I think I might've rubbed off on you a little too much."

"It's okay," Marco assured. "Legally's a great musical. And also, I finished watching all the musicals on the list you gave me. You were right about Menken."

The mention of her favourite composer got her smiling, "Marco, I'm always right about Menken." The mood remained elevated, even as she stood up to look over her sheet music on a music stand. She changed the subject of conversation, "By the way, how's your song doing?"

"I showed it to Sasha and Connie, they liked it, so I laid down some rhythm guitar and percussion tracks to go along with it," Marco explained, watching her move. "But get this, Sasha's gonna let me sing lead for this one while she sings harmony."

Mina looked genuinely surprised, "Wait, really? Marco, that's awesome! You're gonna do great!"

Marco smiled modestly, "Well, yeah. I mean, no one's gonna hear it until we either perform or record it, but still, I've been feeling great with my singing voice lately so I asked Sasha if I could take the wheel."

"That's amazing, Marco," Mina stated truthfully. "I cannot wait to hear your song. But, may I get a demo now?"

"Sorry, Mina, but I vowed to Sasha and Connie that I wouldn't let it leave our apartment until Sasha's microphone gets fixed so we could record this sucker," Marco explained, somewhat disdainfully, since he was rather proud of his new creation. But he still had commitments to his band he intended to keep. "You're gonna have to wait a while."

It was not surprising that Mina seemed disappointed, "Oh, well, that's fine, it's your song, anyway." It did hurt to not get a little demo, like what he attempted to do with her weeks ago. But then again, she had to go, and her choice to leave was her decision. "Can't wait to hear it."

"Connie says it's gonna sound great," Marco stated. Suddenly, the topic of conversation shifted once more, perhaps in Marco's interpretation that the subject of his music had nothing left to talk about, or perhaps because his mind was genuinely trapped on another topic. "Y'know, it sucks that you're gonna leave RAPA though. When are you gonna go?"

There was a chance that Mina was avoiding this subject, seeing as she suddenly scooted back to her spot on the stool and looked down, "A week from now, right after the mid-semester critique."

Comprehending, Marco nodded, "Ah, that seems only fitting."

"I guess it is," Mina agreed. Truth be told, she hadn't talk about this subject with anyone lately, as her choice to leave was only her own. "But talking about it now, I think I'm having second doubts."

"Second doubts?" Marco raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean by that?"

"I have friends here, don't I? And I don't wanna just leave," Mina replied. "I have Annie, Hitch, Hitch's odd Shakespeare friends, Hannah, Mylius and Nac ... and you."

Marco fought back a blush, trying to remain modest, "Mina, please, this is broadway we're talking about, don't let us hold you back."

"I'm trying not to, but I suck at holding onto friendships outside of school," Mina admitted, seeing as she barely emailed or spoke to either Samuel or Thomas when they were out of town. The reason she'd probably remain friends with Annie and Hitch would be due to the fact that they were roommates, and there was no guarantee about staying close to Hannah, since the redheaded musical theatre major had her own classes and a rather handsome boyfriend to keep her busy. Things would be tough.

And holding onto to Marco would be tougher.

They had no classes together, she was mad at him the first time they met, and the only times they truly spent time together was 1 hour sessions once a week. That was nothing compared to having 2 or 3 shared classes, and she did take part in her life outside the rehearsal rooms.

Heck, she had only known Marco for about 2 and a half months at this point, and bonding with someone this strongly in that amount of time was fast.

But then again, wasn't everything in the theatre world fast? From the costume changes, to how quickly the time between the first rehearsal and opening night slipped away in one's hands, this could not be too improbable, would it?

"You can make new friends, can't you?" Marco offered, suddenly breaking Mina out of her train of thought.

"I can," Mina agreed, since she was quite sociable herself. "I just know that if I left RAPA, I'd leave a part of me behind."

Getting off the piano bench, Marco got up and approached Mina, placing his hand on hers before he spoke, "Mina, you'll be okay. And I know you enough to know that you'll be fine out there, as long as you're living your dream."

The pigtailed girl flushed, her entire body tensing up as she pushed his hand away from hers, "Uh... no, don't do that."

Her reaction caused Marco to recoil his hand away, "I'm sorry! It's just a little quirk I have."

"It' fine! It's fine!" Mina cut off, her voice gaining an element of sternness and professionalism. "It's just... months ago, before I met up with you for your first lesson, I vowed that um..." It started to look like she was going to confess something terrible. "... I basically vowed to myself that I'd keep this relationship professional, and that I wouldn't fall for anyone anytime soon."

This time, Marco's blush actually showed itself, "Oh, and this right here, it's- uh..."

"Not really helping that said vow," Mina admitted, her face turning rosy red as well.

Marco stumbled back onto the piano bench, flustered as hell, "Oh, well, sorry about that."

"It's okay," Mina insisted.

Marco tried chuckling it off, but when that didn't work, all he could really do is run his fingers through his hair in a frustrated manner and begin rubbing the tip of his nose, "Well, feels like we're just one big mess now, aren't we?"

"Probably," Mina agreed. "I suck at keeping vows."

"And I suck at helping people keep vows," Marco added on, his palms starting to get sweaty. "But um... you know what, you can't live your life just making vows and trying to keep them."

"Why do you say that?" Mina questioned.

Marco wove his confession smoothly into his words, "Because I didn't make a vow to start liking you any time soon, it just happened."

Mina looked shocked and surprised, "You- what?"

"And I didn't make a vow to start missing you when you were gone, I didn't make a vow to start wishing I could see you again every day, and I didn't make a vow to come into this room and talk to you when I woke up this morning," he listed, each word coming out courageously stronger than the last. He lifted his head up and looked her in the eye, "It all just happened. But what do you do when things just happened? You try to work with them and see what you can make of it."

Mina's experience of improvisation onstage allowed her to agree with his words, "Oh, all right. So what you're saying is, since we both happen to have these feelings for each other, we should just work with them and watch what happens?"

Admittedly, that little reference made him smile, "Yes, in a way, yes."

The silence that followed between them was suddenly filled with tension and anticipation, considering what was just confessed.

Truth be told, Marco never expected these feelings to come out. They could have in a song, but most poetry in music were filled with metaphors and other literary bullshit to the point where one wouldn't know what the message could be. And he absolutely did not expect that Mina was reciprocate said feelings with her own.

It was all heavy matter to them, and the pregnant silence between the two went on and on for a while.

It stopped when Mina muttered some surprising words, "Would anything between us even work well at all? You with classes, your job, and your band, and me with rehearsals and all that jazz."

Marco agreed with a nod, though, half-heartedly, "Probably." His answer was dry and low, cautiousness steeped into his tone.

A silent moment just followed, and at this point, it was probably best to assume that conversations in this room were going to have plenty of awkward pauses woven into the duration.

But the current awkward pause was broken after a few long seconds when Mina spoke, "Y'know, with all that said then, if you don't get over here and kiss me right now, I swear to god, I'm gonna lose my head."

Marco had never stumbled off a piano bench and complied to something more faster in his life.

* * *

_Did you enjoy it? Did you not? Did you want to leave a review? _

_Seriously though, I do want to know how I did on this, I really do. I have a tumblr account Super-Sandri if you wanna talk about it there. _

_Anyway, hope you had fun on this ride. Who knows? Maybe I'll expand on this universe a bit in the future. _

_k'bye_


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